1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a document information processor such as a word processor or an electronic typewriter and, more particularly, to a document information processor capable of inputting characters to which symbols relating to pronunciation, e.g., accent symbols and phonetic change symbols, are attached (hereinafter referred to as accented characters).
2. Description of the Prior Art
To input such accented characters, conventional document information processors have been designed based on one of the following arrangements:
(a) one in which input keys for inputting accented characters are provided on a keyboard, PA1 (b) one in which keys for inputting accent symbols are provided on a keyboard and are operated to add accent symbols to characters, and PA1 (c) one in which an input with an accent can be designated by depressing a predetermined key along with a character key, and all proposed accent symbols corresponding to the input character (hereinafter referred to as "proposed accent") are displayed according to the designated input, one of which symbols is selected by the operator.
The need for using a widely used keyboard having no keys for accented characters or accent symbols other than those based on the arrangements (a) and (b) has increased because of the spread of personal computers and because of a need to adapt one keyboard to languages of a plurality of countries. That is, it is highly possible that the arrangement (c) will generally be used.
However, a document information processor adapted to languages of a plurality of countries, e.g., English, French and German, based on the arrangement (c) entails the problems described below.
Proposed accents for inputting an accented character are not selected and displayed in accordance with accented characters of each language; proposed accents are displayed irrespective of the difference between the languages. It is therefore possible that an accented character which does not really exist in an input language can be displayed.
Moreover, conventional processors are not arranged to change in the priority order of selection of proposed accents (the priority order of display) according to the frequency of use.
In addition, there is a need to select and display a plurality of proposed accents even if there is only one accent to be proposed in an input language.
Further, no means for displaying proposed accents while discriminating them with respect to capital and lower case letters is provided in conventional processors.
For these reasons, there is a large burden on the operator who operates the keyboard to select a proposed accent, thereby leading to errors in the inputting operation.